Daughter of sex offender speaks out, says he isn't a risk

The daughter of a convicted sex offender living near a Dartmouth, N.S. school is speaking out about the situation.

The young woman also happens to be the man’s victim; he sexually abused her for a period of four years, beginning when she was seven years old.

As a victim of sexual assault, the woman cannot be identified, but she agreed to speak to CTV News today via Skype.

She doesn’t believe her father is a risk to the public, but thinks the parents of children who attend South Woodside Elementary School should have been notified he is living nearby.

“It was after a long period of time that I was finally able to come out and say something about what was happening in my life that I had kept secret for quite some time,” she says.

While the abuse took place years ago, she says it all came rushing back this week when she heard the news about her father, and abuser, living near an elementary school.

“I don’t think that he should be living next door to a school, even though he isn’t a risk to anybody, but I can definitely see the concern that parents have.”

Police told staff at the school a sex offender was living across from the school, but no one informed parents.

Eventually word got out, and concern among parents grew.

“I think they should have been notified but I think they should have been told that he is not a risk to their children.”

According to parole board documents obtained by CTV News, the man has interfamilial pedophilia and is unlikely to be a risk to anyone outside his own family.

His daughter agrees with the parole board’s ruling.

“Most definitely, because he hasn’t done anything to hurt anyone outside our family, and he hasn’t done anything to hurt anyone other than myself.”

She does, however, have a warning for parents.

“I just want parents to understand that you have to be wary of the people that you have in your own life, not a random stranger walking down the road or in a park, or in a small mall somewhere,” she says.

“You need to be cautious of the people you’re leaving your kids with in their care.”

She also hopes things get better in the Dartmouth neighbourhood, because no matter what her father did in the past, she says he has been working to better himself, and she wants him to be able to live his life.